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Devilish Dancing

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Okay, so it's autumn, not midsummer. But Shakespeare's beloved comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream, about mixed-up lovers running about in an enchanted forest, is filled with allusions to ghouls and goblins. So it's perfect for Halloween too. Ballet Memphis, which spent its midsummer performing to critical acclaim at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., opens their new interpretation of this sprawling fantasy at Playhouse on the Square on Saturday, October 30th. (Kendall Britt Jr. as Puck pictured right.)

And that's not the weekend's only exciting dance event. There's also ReNEWal, a retrospective of modern works by Project: Motion at the Evergreen Theatre, and Abandon-Salvation-Grace, a concert and performance at the Buckman Arts Center at St. Mary's Episcopal School by Collage Dance Collective, an exciting new company blending classical ballet and modern dance.

"We want to produce great dance, but we want it to be accessible to people who aren't dance aficionados," says Collage's managing director Marcellus Harper. "This is an opportunity to show people what we do; to share our point of view."

Abandon-Salvation-Grace is a 90-minute concert featuring a variety of short pieces including "The Dying Swans," a dance created by Collage's artistic director Kevin Thomas. Inspired by the iconic performances of Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, "The Dying Swan" asks the question, "Where did all the black swans go?"

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Playhouse on the Square, October 30th-November 7th (balletmemphis.org)